Tech industry continues aligning along the F train

The F train might need to be renamed the T train — as in tech. Crain’s reported that the Subway line has not only become a convenient method of transportation between the city’s start-up hot spots, but also “a powerful drawing card.”

F train-accessible Midtown South — known to feel the “glow of Google” — has seen several tech companies take space not far from F stations in the past year. Examples include Yelp, which now has its New York headquarters at 104 Fifth Avenue between 15th and 16th streets and AOL’s hyperlocal news site Patch, which is located on Sixth Avenue between 21st and 22nd streets. Even Dumbo, which is located off the F line, had an office vacancy rate of below 2 percent this spring due to the neighborhood’s growing tech scene.

As previously reported, Cornell University President David Skorton predicted the Cornell-Technion campus on Roosevelt Island would create an “F train tech corridor” that he wants to see extended into Queens. To that end, a recent proposal emerged attempting to bring a tech incubator space to Long Island City for start-ups and entrepreneurs.

However, Crain’s said, despite relatively low office rents, tech companies are not yet in Queens, as it still lacks “the hip, cool factor,” according to John Reinertsen, a CBRE commercial broker. [Crain’s]